It was 25 years ago this month when young Tim put on his dress pants, his one (of two) sport coat and a tie for his first day of work of what I believe can now be classified as a career, eh? It was time to use that enhanced knowledge acquired from four years of undergraduate schooling to.......collect car payments and repossess cars. Hey, it was an entry level job; you had to start somewhere. I was making $18K and thought I was in fat city with that much money.
Fast forward 25 years later and a few things have changed:
The dress pants, sports coat and tie have left the building. Thankfully we adopted a business casual dress code in the late 90's so out with the collar gripping ties and hello to the khakis.
While I don't partake, smoking inside the branch also stopped. My first branch manager, Mr. D., was a BIG smoker; as were his co-managers. They didn't just take a small drag off of a Marlboro, they more or less inhaled half of the smoke with each puff. Needless to say, our office was the last one to move smoking outside. One side of our lunchroom was the designated smoking area and any outsider could easily identify that area as the white ceiling tiles were more of a yellow/brown on that side.
Christmas parties used to be a branch tradition of a large gathering at a local hall with a big dinner, an open bar and gifts for everyone; now, five of us go out to lunch on a Friday. One of my favorite work party memories was when a temporary worker had a bit too much and let her dinner fly for all (100+ people) to see. That was the last time I recall seeing her.
There was no surfing the Internet back in 1990 as I don't recall if there even was an Internet at the time. No e-mail; thankfully. People talked. We worked the mighty "green screen" with the only information available being what is programmed from the master database. There was no elaborate training on-line. Mine consisted of a pack of audio cassettes with the Allman Brothers "Jessica" tune playing as the introduction and exit music to each section (no lie) and a large book to follow along with. The field training consisted of a map of the city and a stack of accounts that were past due and needed to be concluded. Get out there Tim!!!! I quickly learned how to get around the D. West side streets weren't too bad as most were straight north/south and east/west. The east side with more of the diagonal streets took some time to get used to. Trying to find an address on any of the 'Outer Drive' streets was an experience as they zig and zag all through the city. Most people saw you in the tie and didn't give you any crap; they knew you were just doing a job. I still made a point, however, to hit the 'not so great' areas early in the morning as you don't want to be there on a hot afternoon once the brown paper bags come out.
Cell phones were just starting to catch on. We had these big box phones when we were in the field; used to call the repo man/tow truck to come get a car. It was 50/50 if you were going to get your call through so you held your breath when making a call at the corner of Dexter/Davison in the city. "Fast Eddie" M. was our main repo man/tow truck driver in the city. Funny that he had that nickname (think he gave it to himself) as I've never seen a slower repo man; and I've seen many. Some are quite good at their craft. And it is NOTHING like what you see on those silly reality television shows. Fast Eddie has unfortunately left us. The guy could talk with the best of them. Good person.
Working flex time or working from home was not in the program in 1990. The only flex time you worked was by design to get a hold of people in the evening that were behind on their car payments. If there was a foot of snow on the ground, you somehow found a way to get in. No PTO, you had sick days and vacation days. Those with perfect attendance usually got a bonus day off and a tag for their cubicle recognizing the feat. Those days are over. The old school regime when I first started expected you to be in at 'X' time and leave at 'X' time; no excuses. We had one manager who would literally stand by the door in the morning and at leaving time to see who was late and who was leaving early. He didn't last long.
The company has become leaner over the years. There used to be 20+ branches in the state, now there are just over 20 in the entire country.
We used to take payments at the branch which was quite a scene on Fridays. Some serious cash coming through as there is still a large population out there that only pays with cash. The toughest job on Fridays was having door duty at 5 PM and having a herd running from the parking lot as you closed the door. That was a big deal when they closed the cash cages but we seemed to have adapted. Electronic money!!!!
While I eventually moved up in the company doing a little bit of everything to my current position dealing with our credit scoring system, those early days were the best of times and the worst of times. Calling the same people day in and day out who are having financial difficulties for one reason or another can take a toll on your mojo. Looking for people who are hiding from you was the fun part. I'm sure I could gather some of my old co-workers and write a book on some of the stories from the field.
My first story has me looking for a van and finding said van in the back yard of the resident's house. After knocking on the door and not getting an answer, I went to verify the vehicle number on the van. It was ours. I turn around and there is Mr. Customer. Yep, just about crapped my pants. He calmly asked me into his house, offered me coffee, he went in his bedroom, came out with the three payments in cash that he was behind and off young (stupid) Tim went to the local bank to convert it into a cashier's check. We had many customers like that who knew the game, knew their credit was beat but you weren't going to get the vehicle back without legal involvement, which is costly. In addition, the vehicles themselves are usually in horrible shape. If someone can't make the payments, do you think they are getting oil changes or new brakes? Those are some beat up cars once we take them back. We would rather help the customer than take back the car. I had a similar experience with another account but the guy didn't have the money and I wasn't getting the car. He had it in the back yard with a pit bull near it. He calmly told me that you can have the car but you'll need to get by the dog. My boss at the time joked that I should bring a pack of hot dogs for those instances. Good doggie!!!! We didn't get the car or the payments. We had to wait that one out. Again, some know the game.
I only heard gun shots once while working in the field. I was on one porch talking to a woman, heard shots from next door, saw a couple kids drive off from the house where the shots came from and off they went. The woman quickly pulled me into her house. The sad part is I was probably there for another 15 minutes and not one police siren was heard.
And yes, I've been 'sent to hell' quite a few times in my days of collecting. One time I was at an account's house, the vehicle wasn't being hidden, the customer said he had no funds and we had to take the car. While I am waiting for the tow truck, pretty much the entire family (6+) came out and chastised me with the best of them. No violence, thankfully. Just words. They were close talkers with the words, however.
If it ever got violent, we were told to walk away as a vehicle isn't worth a life. And there were times it became violent. I was training someone and we were in the process of taking a car when the customer goes into a karate kicking fight with the tow truck driver. He has the Bruce Lee pose going and everything. The girl who was getting trained got a rude awakening on her first day in the field. She didn't last long. Karate Kid got the funds together and all was well.
While 99.999999% of the time, I would verify the vehicle number of a vehicle before taking it back, there was one time I didn't and the gamble failed. Young, stupid Tim saw a Porsche in a driveway at the account's address. The account was quite behind and phone communication had stopped. What are the chances that someone has two Porsche vehicles? Yep, took the wrong car.
You learned a lot about neighbor communication while working in the field. Some neighbors don't get along. When you tell them that you are looking for Jane Doe's red sports car, their eyes light up. "You mean that convertible she parks over at her boyfriend's on Orangelawn?" Yep, that one. Some like to rat out others.
I only had the keys and physically repossessed one car in my time in the field as with kill switches and other security devices, it's all tow trucks now. That one time I did it with the keys only was a thrill, however. As noted earlier, some know the game and will pay just enough to hold off the lawyers. This customer never communicated with us (we're here to help), had security parking at home so the night time repo guys couldn't get it there and her employer had roof parking. With that, I got the keys, walked the 10 or so stories of the garage and on the top level, there it was! I put the key in, drove out (auto exit from the garage), took it to a local dealership and called it in. Woooo!!!!!
Twenty five years. Good days and bad days but overall, no complaints. Heck, the company helped me get my first house and paid ALL of my graduate school tuition. Who could complain about that?
Trail Head
While I don't partake, smoking inside the branch also stopped. My first branch manager, Mr. D., was a BIG smoker; as were his co-managers. They didn't just take a small drag off of a Marlboro, they more or less inhaled half of the smoke with each puff. Needless to say, our office was the last one to move smoking outside. One side of our lunchroom was the designated smoking area and any outsider could easily identify that area as the white ceiling tiles were more of a yellow/brown on that side.Christmas parties used to be a branch tradition of a large gathering at a local hall with a big dinner, an open bar and gifts for everyone; now, five of us go out to lunch on a Friday. One of my favorite work party memories was when a temporary worker had a bit too much and let her dinner fly for all (100+ people) to see. That was the last time I recall seeing her.
There was no surfing the Internet back in 1990 as I don't recall if there even was an Internet at the time. No e-mail; thankfully. People talked. We worked the mighty "green screen" with the only information available being what is programmed from the master database. There was no elaborate training on-line. Mine consisted of a pack of audio cassettes with the Allman Brothers "Jessica" tune playing as the introduction and exit music to each section (no lie) and a large book to follow along with. The field training consisted of a map of the city and a stack of accounts that were past due and needed to be concluded. Get out there Tim!!!! I quickly learned how to get around the D. West side streets weren't too bad as most were straight north/south and east/west. The east side with more of the diagonal streets took some time to get used to. Trying to find an address on any of the 'Outer Drive' streets was an experience as they zig and zag all through the city. Most people saw you in the tie and didn't give you any crap; they knew you were just doing a job. I still made a point, however, to hit the 'not so great' areas early in the morning as you don't want to be there on a hot afternoon once the brown paper bags come out.
Cell phones were just starting to catch on. We had these big box phones when we were in the field; used to call the repo man/tow truck to come get a car. It was 50/50 if you were going to get your call through so you held your breath when making a call at the corner of Dexter/Davison in the city. "Fast Eddie" M. was our main repo man/tow truck driver in the city. Funny that he had that nickname (think he gave it to himself) as I've never seen a slower repo man; and I've seen many. Some are quite good at their craft. And it is NOTHING like what you see on those silly reality television shows. Fast Eddie has unfortunately left us. The guy could talk with the best of them. Good person.
Working flex time or working from home was not in the program in 1990. The only flex time you worked was by design to get a hold of people in the evening that were behind on their car payments. If there was a foot of snow on the ground, you somehow found a way to get in. No PTO, you had sick days and vacation days. Those with perfect attendance usually got a bonus day off and a tag for their cubicle recognizing the feat. Those days are over. The old school regime when I first started expected you to be in at 'X' time and leave at 'X' time; no excuses. We had one manager who would literally stand by the door in the morning and at leaving time to see who was late and who was leaving early. He didn't last long.
The company has become leaner over the years. There used to be 20+ branches in the state, now there are just over 20 in the entire country.
We used to take payments at the branch which was quite a scene on Fridays. Some serious cash coming through as there is still a large population out there that only pays with cash. The toughest job on Fridays was having door duty at 5 PM and having a herd running from the parking lot as you closed the door. That was a big deal when they closed the cash cages but we seemed to have adapted. Electronic money!!!!
While I eventually moved up in the company doing a little bit of everything to my current position dealing with our credit scoring system, those early days were the best of times and the worst of times. Calling the same people day in and day out who are having financial difficulties for one reason or another can take a toll on your mojo. Looking for people who are hiding from you was the fun part. I'm sure I could gather some of my old co-workers and write a book on some of the stories from the field.
My first story has me looking for a van and finding said van in the back yard of the resident's house. After knocking on the door and not getting an answer, I went to verify the vehicle number on the van. It was ours. I turn around and there is Mr. Customer. Yep, just about crapped my pants. He calmly asked me into his house, offered me coffee, he went in his bedroom, came out with the three payments in cash that he was behind and off young (stupid) Tim went to the local bank to convert it into a cashier's check. We had many customers like that who knew the game, knew their credit was beat but you weren't going to get the vehicle back without legal involvement, which is costly. In addition, the vehicles themselves are usually in horrible shape. If someone can't make the payments, do you think they are getting oil changes or new brakes? Those are some beat up cars once we take them back. We would rather help the customer than take back the car. I had a similar experience with another account but the guy didn't have the money and I wasn't getting the car. He had it in the back yard with a pit bull near it. He calmly told me that you can have the car but you'll need to get by the dog. My boss at the time joked that I should bring a pack of hot dogs for those instances. Good doggie!!!! We didn't get the car or the payments. We had to wait that one out. Again, some know the game.
I only heard gun shots once while working in the field. I was on one porch talking to a woman, heard shots from next door, saw a couple kids drive off from the house where the shots came from and off they went. The woman quickly pulled me into her house. The sad part is I was probably there for another 15 minutes and not one police siren was heard.
And yes, I've been 'sent to hell' quite a few times in my days of collecting. One time I was at an account's house, the vehicle wasn't being hidden, the customer said he had no funds and we had to take the car. While I am waiting for the tow truck, pretty much the entire family (6+) came out and chastised me with the best of them. No violence, thankfully. Just words. They were close talkers with the words, however.
If it ever got violent, we were told to walk away as a vehicle isn't worth a life. And there were times it became violent. I was training someone and we were in the process of taking a car when the customer goes into a karate kicking fight with the tow truck driver. He has the Bruce Lee pose going and everything. The girl who was getting trained got a rude awakening on her first day in the field. She didn't last long. Karate Kid got the funds together and all was well.
While 99.999999% of the time, I would verify the vehicle number of a vehicle before taking it back, there was one time I didn't and the gamble failed. Young, stupid Tim saw a Porsche in a driveway at the account's address. The account was quite behind and phone communication had stopped. What are the chances that someone has two Porsche vehicles? Yep, took the wrong car.
You learned a lot about neighbor communication while working in the field. Some neighbors don't get along. When you tell them that you are looking for Jane Doe's red sports car, their eyes light up. "You mean that convertible she parks over at her boyfriend's on Orangelawn?" Yep, that one. Some like to rat out others.
I only had the keys and physically repossessed one car in my time in the field as with kill switches and other security devices, it's all tow trucks now. That one time I did it with the keys only was a thrill, however. As noted earlier, some know the game and will pay just enough to hold off the lawyers. This customer never communicated with us (we're here to help), had security parking at home so the night time repo guys couldn't get it there and her employer had roof parking. With that, I got the keys, walked the 10 or so stories of the garage and on the top level, there it was! I put the key in, drove out (auto exit from the garage), took it to a local dealership and called it in. Woooo!!!!!
Twenty five years. Good days and bad days but overall, no complaints. Heck, the company helped me get my first house and paid ALL of my graduate school tuition. Who could complain about that?
Trail Head
